


petals

by falterth



Category: Naruto
Genre: Cryptid Server Secret Santa, F/F, Pre-Relationship, couple of girls being gals. couple of gals being girls. couple of girls being gay, flower stuff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-24
Updated: 2018-12-24
Packaged: 2019-09-26 10:59:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17140547
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/falterth/pseuds/falterth
Summary: “I’m going to assume you remember nothing from our kunoichi lessons,” Ino says, barging into her house like she owns the place.





	petals

**Author's Note:**

  * For [BBGR8](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BBGR8/gifts).



> merry christmas!

“I’m going to assume you remember nothing from our kunoichi lessons,” Ino says, barging into her house like she owns the place.

Sakura clicks her tongue exasperatedly, fondly. “No. Just a few flower definitions . . . it really was a long time ago, now that I think about it.” A hand reaching out toward her, a cosmos flower perched delicately behind her ear. She remembers, all right, but it’s not what Ino’s talking about. 

“Thought so,” Ino says firmly. “We’ll work on flower meanings today then. I’ve actually—brought—” Ino pulls a scroll out of her bag, fumbles it, and catches it just before it hits the ground. She straightens up and taps the scroll a few times with the tip of her finger. A nervous tic, maybe. “There we go.”

“What’s that for?” Sakura asks.

“Flowers,” Ino says. “You won’t believe how many I managed to stuff into this thing!”

“Should I be concerned?” Sakura asks, trying to get a better look at the end of the scroll. _Storage and Preservation._ Ino’s probably been collecting these for weeks.

“No,” Ino says, waving Sakura’s concerns away. “Come on. We’ll go to the backyard. You’ve got space in there, right? You cleaned up?”

“I’m not _Naruto,_ ” Sakura says. “Obviously I cleaned it up.”

Cleaned it up, of course, after Tenten had caused a minor—read: major—sealing accident in her backyard. What it is about Sakura’s backyard that compels her friends to try out experimental jutsu and seals in it, she doesn’t know. She’s not sure she even wants to know.

Sakura leads Ino through her house to the back porch and slides the door open. She eyes the rickety little table and chairs sitting out with no small amount of disgust. She’ll replace it soon. Eventually . . . sometime in the next ten years. It’s probably time to admit to herself she’s grown fond of the things.

They’re old, a part of her, and every time she sits in one of them she adds a little piece of herself onto the shaky woodwork.

“So,” Sakura starts, shaking her head to clear her thoughts. The humidity is doing bad things to her attention span. “Take your pick. Floor or table. I can get some cushions if we need them. Do you need anything else? Water? Food?”

“Ah—let’s sit on the floor,” Ino suggests. “You can go get those cushions you mentioned. And I’m fine. I ate before I came here.”

Sakura nods and hurries into her house to retrieve the cushions. It takes a minute of rooting around inside the little closet she keeps her outside supplies in before she comes across her cushions. Her favorite one is a thin, dark red pillow wearing away from how much she’s used it. It’s by far the most comfortable one. She grabs it and another and heads out.

The back porch has undergone a complete change. Flowers are scattered all over the place, organized in neat little clumps. A small path of clear floor space leads toward Ino, who’s laying a little bundle of roses onto the ground. She looks up when Sakura clears her throat.

“Hi,” Ino says. At least she has the decency to look ashamed. “I . . . set things up?”

“You couldn’t have done this a few at a time?” Sakura says, handing Ino a pillow and setting the other on the floor. She plops down into it and surveys the wide array of flowers. “It’s gonna be a bitch to clean up.”

“I thought it improved the decor in here,” Ino teases.

Sakura opens her mouth to say something and sneezes instead. “Oh, no. I’m sorry about your—were those _dandelion puffs_? Why do you have those here?”

“Saw them by the roadside and thought we could wish on them,” Ino says, waving Sakura’s concerns away. “Although it seems like you’ve taken care of that already. It’s all right. We can find some more.”

“Yeah,” Sakura says, pulling a tissue out to wipe her nose. She surveys the spread of flowers. Dread rises in her stomach. There have to be at least fifty different kinds of flowers here, not to mention the colors they come in. It’ll be dark in a few hours, too. “Do I have to learn about all of these today?”

“Correct,” Ino says. Sakura tries not to let her gaze linger on her friend’s smile. “I’ll just have you work on identifying them today. And quit acting like this is some mighty burden. Please. This isn’t even half of what we keep in our shop.”

Sakura twitches.

“We’d better get started,” she says, shifting around on her pillow.

Ino nods and brushes a stray lock of hair behind her ear. “Okay. Feel free to interrupt if you have any questions, okay? But you’ll do that anyway, won’t you? I’m getting off-topic. You following? Cool. Let’s get into this. So there are a bunch of kinds of flowers that we sell. Some of the most popular are . . . ”

Ino trails off, arm gesturing toward a section of flowers whose color range from purple to pink to white to yellow. She’s clearly expecting an answer.

“Those are orchids,” Sakura says. “Easy.”

“Is it, now?” Ino asks. “Point to all the orchids. Let’s see how many types you can spot.”

“You love to put me on the spot, don’t you?” Sakura asks. “Sure. This one. This one. This one, and this one.”

Ino snorts. “You missed two. I’ll point them out to you.”

She points toward a flower with purple petals that look more like leaves than anything, with pale stamens that curve delicately upward. Next, she indicates a pale pink-white flower whose petals look as though they’ve been pinched along the edges.

“The first one I pointed to is a hybrid flower, a cross between two orchids native to the Land of Iron,” Ino explains. “They symbolize wisdom. People like to buy them for those pursuing a higher education. They’re sterile because they’re hybrids, so we don’t always have a lot of them. The second one I pointed out is an orchid that grows in the Land of Snow. It doesn’t have any particular meaning, but it is a pink orchid, so it can symbolize grace and joy. Are you following this?”

“Nothing I’m not capable of learning,” Sakura reassures her. “Should I be writing this down, though?”

“Psh. You’re Sakura,” Ino says. “I was worried if I was talking too fast.”

“Well, no. Not really. Go on,” Sakura prompts. “It’s interesting. What were you saying about orchid colors?”

“Interesting,” Ino says, scratching her cheek. Her face is red—she must be flushed from the heat, too. Sakura wonders if she should have gotten that water after all. “Yeah. Glad you think so. I shouldn’t get too into explaining their meanings or we’ll be here for days. Identifying, remember?”

“Oh. Yes,” Sakura says. “But you’ll tell me more about the flowers later?”

“What kind of friend would I be if I didn’t?” Ino says, sniffing haughtily. Sakura laughs and swats her on the arm. “We’ll start off easy. Really easy. I’ll point to a flower, and you name it. If you can’t, just ask me. No shame in not knowing.”

No shame in not knowing. The words bring back a fond memory of Iruka’s favorite phrase, back when Sakura and Ino had attended the academy. Sakura smiles.

“Go ahead,” she says. Ino begins pointing. “Lily. Blue poppy. Rose. Black iris. Tulip . . . ”

They spend the whole evening like that until sundown.

“Hey,” Sakura says quietly, when they’ve run through the last set of flowers (and Sakura _never_ wants to do that again if she can help it). The air is warm, lying on the two of them like a thick, heavy blanket, and the distance between her hand and Ino’s is miniscule. You couldn’t even fit a strand of hair into the gap.

Sakura’s hand stays still.

“Yeah?” Ino responds, just as hushed as her. There’s a peace in the air that doesn’t want to be broken.

“Let’s wish on the dandelion puffs.”

“Okay,” Ino says, and reaches over to snag the flowers. They’re not in good condition after all these hours. The one Ino hands to Sakura is already half-gone, but Sakura doesn’t mind. “On three, okay?”

One.

Two.

_I wish Ino would be happy like this forever._

Sakura watches the wind carry dandelion seeds into the air and up, up, up until they’re lost in the cushion-soft blackness of the sky.

“I’m kind of hungry,” Ino says.

“Let’s go inside.”

They clean up, Sakura makes dinner, they eat together and joke together, Ino is smiles and laughter and beauty, and Sakura . . . Sakura could get used to this.

**Author's Note:**

> i have [the twitter](https://twitter.com/falterth)  
> and i run a [discord server](https://discord.gg/g25p3S3) for naruto content creators. or readers. we arent picky


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